Spain Deploys Army in Ceuta to Patrol Border with Morocco after Migrants Break in

A migrant crosses the Spanish-Moroccan border in the presence of a Spanish civil guard in Ceuta, Spain, May 17, 2021. (Reuters)
A migrant crosses the Spanish-Moroccan border in the presence of a Spanish civil guard in Ceuta, Spain, May 17, 2021. (Reuters)
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Spain Deploys Army in Ceuta to Patrol Border with Morocco after Migrants Break in

A migrant crosses the Spanish-Moroccan border in the presence of a Spanish civil guard in Ceuta, Spain, May 17, 2021. (Reuters)
A migrant crosses the Spanish-Moroccan border in the presence of a Spanish civil guard in Ceuta, Spain, May 17, 2021. (Reuters)

The Spanish government has deployed troops to Ceuta to patrol the border with Morocco after thousands of migrants swam into the northern African enclave, a source from the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

Soldiers will patrol the border along with Spanish police.

"This starts immediately," the source said, without specifying how many troops will be deployed.

A spokesman for Ceuta's government delegation said soldiers will work with police in sensitive locations within the enclave to maintain order on the streets.

As many as 6,000 Moroccans, including about 1,500 minors, swam into Ceuta on Monday and Tuesday, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.

One person died in the attempt, a Spanish government delegation spokesman said.

The adult arrivals are being transferred to a local football stadium to be handed back to Morocco. Minors are being sent to an industrial building.

Ceuta, with a population of 80,000, is an enclave located on the northern tip of Morocco across from Gibraltar.

The Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and nearby Melilla on Morocco's northern coast have long been a magnet for African migrants trying to reach Europe in search of a better life.

Spanish TV channel 24h reported on Tuesday morning that as many as 85 migrants climbed the border fence to break into Melilla, which is located about 300km east of Ceuta on the Moroccan shore.

The arrival of the migrants took place at a time of increased tension between Spain and Morocco over the fate of Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Western Sahara's Polisario Front, who is in hospital in Spain.

Morocco's Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement last month deploring what it said was the decision of Spain to admit Ghali under a false identity without informing Morocco, adding that the situation would have repercussions for relations between the countries.

The United States in December recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara territory, which is also claimed as an independent state by the Polisario Front.

Ghali is hospitalized in Spain, a Spanish diplomatic source told Reuters.

Ghali was accepted into Spain on humanitarian grounds, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told Cadena SER radio on Monday evening.



Macron Speeds up Rafale Warplane Orders as France Invests in Nuclear Deterrence

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
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Macron Speeds up Rafale Warplane Orders as France Invests in Nuclear Deterrence

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)

President Emmanuel Macron said France would order additional Rafale warplanes in the coming years and invest nearly 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) into one of its air bases to equip its squadrons with the latest nuclear missile technology.

Jolted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's more confrontational stance towards traditional Western allies, European countries are hiking defense spending and seeking to reduce dependence on the United States.

Macron, who has initiated a doubling of the French defense budget over the course of his two mandates, has recently set an even higher target, saying the country should increase defense spending to 3-3.5% of economic output from the current 2%.

He has also offered to extend the protection of France's nuclear weapons, the so-called nuclear umbrella, to other European countries.

"We haven't waited for 2022 or the turning point we're seeing right now to discover that the world we live in is ever more dangerous, ever more uncertain, and that it implies to innovate, to bulk up and to become more autonomous," he said.

"I will announce in the coming weeks new investments to go further than what was done over the past seven years," he told soldiers at one of the country's historical air bases in Luxeuil, eastern France.

Macron said he had decided to turn the base, famed in military circles as the home of American volunteer pilots during World War One, into one of its most advanced bases in its nuclear deterrence program.

The base will host the latest Rafale S5 fighter jets, which will carry France's next-generation ASN4G hypersonic nuclear-armed cruise missiles, which are intended to be operational from 2035 onwards, French officials said.

The French air force will also receive additional Dassault-made Rafale warplanes, in part to replace the Mirage jets France has transferred to Ukraine, Macron said.

"We are going to increase and accelerate our orders for Rafales," he said.

French officials said the 1.5 billion euros were part of the already approved multi-year military spending plan. It remained unclear how France would finance a massive hike in military spending at a time it is trying to reduce its budget deficit.

Macron's speech comes on the day the German parliament approved a massive increase in military spending.